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WWE presented RAW this past Monday night. The show saw some very weird decisions booking-wise, and some twists and turns here and there. It was one of those “Hmmm… Interesting” shows. (If that made any sense.) I can understand why the wrestling wasn’t of high quality last night, and that’s because the RAW Roster just completed a weary tour of Australia — something many people have failed to remember. The main event saw Shane McMahon take on Eric Bischoff. Steve Austin changed the main event at SummerSlam, making it an Elimination Chamber with Triple H defending against HBK, Y2J, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Randy Orton. It was also announced that Kane will take on RVD at ‘Slam. We’ll get to that in a minute. Also on the show, Gail Kim turned heel by attacking Trish Stratus.
Triple H vs. Goldberg is no more at SummerSlam. After suffering a groin injury last week, WWE decided to take it easy on Hunter and change the main event. However, as it turns out there’s several reasons why we won’t be seeing the one-on-one match at the PPV. One of them is indeed Triple H’s groin injury. It’s believed that The Game won’t be at 100% at all when the PPV comes around, and with Goldberg still a bit rusty inside the ring, a one-on-one match might not work out well at all.
Speculations hit the ‘net immediately following RAW about the change in the main event. Many continue to look at it as Triple H trying to escape from losing to Goldberg, or at least losing the belt in a one-on-one match. Nevertheless, there’s more to the story, it turns out. The WWE upper management simply looks to be more and more against giving the belt to Goldberg, for numerous reasons. 1) His contract has a certain amount of dates for him per month, which doesn’t allow him to do too many house shows. WWE believes this will be a big trouble, as Championship matches won’t be happening at House Shows now and the Champ won’t be there. 2) Apparently, Vince McMahon approached Goldberg following Triple H’s injury after RAW and personally asked him to take Triple H’s place in WWE’s Ruthless Agression tour over in Australia, as that would have been a great “gift” by WWE to the Australian fans. However, Goldberg said he had other things to do that he had already committed to and wasn’t able to attend. McMahon responded with “No problem,” but as it turns out, Goldberg’s denial to join the stars was the talk of the tour among wrestlers.
In a later update, it was said that there were also other reasons stopping Goldberg from participating in the tour. He returned to Atlanta after RAW, and to go down under, he needed a visa and his passport, which was in his house in California. It’s really a twisted story with a lot of turns and loops, but the bottom line is, that many believe Goldberg turning down Vince’s offer is what could have cause him not to win the World Championship, and what was ultimately the change for the main event.
I honestly don’t like the change of the main event one bit. In fact, even if Goldberg does win the World Championship at SummerSlam, it’ll hardly mean as much now, since it’s not a one-on-one encounter. Maybe Goldberg isn’t worth of holding the strap either, but as it turns out with Triple H around as the World Champion, nobody else is. I guess unless your name is Michaels, Hogan, or Rock, you have absolutely no chance of Triple H doing the job for you. I don’t want to blame Hunter for the changes that are happening, but I find it a bit odd that the three members of the Clique currently in WWE are all in the main event now. Well, you never know. Hunter might just lose the title, as the last time he lost the strap, it was exactly in an Elimination Chamber match. If WWE writers are smart, in my opinion there’s only one man besides Goldberg from the six in the main event that should have the World Championship around his waist — Chris Jericho. I can dream, can’t I?
I was mad that I couldn’t share my thoughts on Shane McMahon’s return last week, but I get to do that in this space. I thought Shane’s return was good, and that the Internet jumped on his case for nothing. A lot of “analysts” on-line simply can not stand the fact that Stephanie and Vince McMahon are at the position they’re currently at over at SmackDown. It seems though, as if they decided to take their frustrations out on Shane O’Mac. I really don’t think Shane’s return should be looked at as “another McMahon on TV,” but rather a returning character who’s been out for two years and can offer some fresh things on TV. Yes, he does have a last name of McMahon, but Shane, unlike his sister, is not one who loves to be on camera that much. I think people need to lighten up a bit, and look it in a good way. Another thing about his return… He didn’t “destroy” Kane. It took Kane a while to fall down from the stage after three chair shots, and then Kane stood up and laughed as if nothing happened. Did nobody catch that this meant “Shane’s beating didn’t do crap?”
I do have a problem, however, with the way they booked him this past Monday. I also don’t think RVD vs. Kane at SummerSlam is the appropriate match right now. WWE should have built Shane as a credible guy who has been acting crazy and vicious because of how strongly he feels about his mother’s well-being. It’s like he’s on a constant adrenaline rush. They did a great job in the opening segment of RAW, where they showed that Shane was full of frustrations and emotions and wanted to take it all out, but they drifted apart when they changed his focus from Kane to Bischoff. Now that it’s RVD vs. Kane, I honestly don’t see why Shane returned. It just doesn’t make much sense. I also think the more they built Shane as a credible guy, the more it would have helped Kane and nobody else, as Shane would have jobbed to hm at ‘Slam and probably taken another one of his crazy bumps or two. WWE really screwed things up in there in my opinion. As far as the Internet goes, the same guys who are now talking crap about Shane taking up TV time will end up dissing the RVD and Kane storyline as well. Just remember my words on that one.
RVD should have wrestled Chris Jericho at SummerSlam. It would have been the perfect program with the perfect PPV match. WWE wasted an amazing match on RAW with no story behind it and no real purpose to it. I do appluad Chris and Rob for their work though. It was the highlight of the show and definitely a match worth watching. I just feel it would have been better to have Shane take on Kane at ‘Slam, RVD battle Jericho in another classic, and for Flair to take Y2J’s spot in the Elimination Chamber. I guess Jericho shut everyone up for what happened following his King of the Ring 2002 match with RVD, after which he “left” the Internet.
Other RAW thoughts… Gail Kim is pretty much done in my book. I will give her another chance and see how she does in her new role. It might work out for her after all… I think I’m the only one who’s laughing at the Rosey/Hurricane stuff. I don’t know, I just find it funny… Christian and Hurricane had a great match! Very good stuff from both guys… The more La Resistance and the Dudleyz feud the more I seem not to care about it. They need to freshen things up in that area… What the hell was Test wearing?
That will do it for today folks! Our newsboard is back, so I encourage you to check on it for the latest news in pro wrestling! Thanks for supporting TBL!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
